The ample production of beef, pork, chicken and dairy products in large scale, centralized animal production facilities to meet the growing demand for a high protein diet in our wealthy society have been accomplished with increasing economy. High quality meat and milk products are delivered to the grocer's shelves at bargain prices. Unfortunately, the byproduct of centralized animal husbandry are ever growing open pits or lagoons of untreated, semi-liquid animal wastes.
Recent concerns over the possibility of pathogens in these animal wastes leaking into lakes and rivers or entering the underground water supply have provoked civic actions. intestinal parasites, such as giardia and cryptosporidium and pathogenic viruses and bacteria, which can infect man, are capable of entering the watershed from theme animal waste ponds. If these plant nutrient containing byproducts enter our lakes and rivers, the normal ecology is overwhelmed by "blooms" of algae which use up all the dissolved oxygen, killing fish and other aquatic creatures. These animal manures, if properly treated and applied, become useful plant fertilizers and complete the nutrient cycle if returned to the land for crop production.
The present invention proposes to treat animal wastes with intense radio frequency energy to destroy all pathogens. Semi-liquid manures are pumped into a specialized multimode, resonant chamber with a series of moving partitions, each of which moves animal waste products in sectors into the path of the radio frequency energy for sterilization.
For portable, on-site treatment of existing animal waste lagoons, all necessary equipment is brought to the site and operated from a trailer mounted, self contained system. The complete system has a portable electricity generator, a portable radio frequency energy generator, semi-liquid animal waste handling pumps with flexible piping, the [RF] radio frequency energy applicator assembly and treated animal waste retaining and bagging equipment. Stationary and permanent installations can be added to the final stage, waste treatment procedures at existing dairies, farms and feedlots.
Exiting treated wastes can be mixed with moisture adsorbing materials and fortified with additional nutrients and trace minerals to produce rich fertilizer pellets. the pellets can be bagged for storage or shipped for immediate use.
Description of the Prior Art
Kishi (U.S. Pat. No. 5,152,074) proposes a drying apparatus having a casing provided with stirring blades and heating bodies therein (col. 1 lines 65-68) in which the raw sewage is stirred by the rotation of the stirring blades and heated by the heat generated by the heating bodies.
There are significant differences between Kishi and applicant. Although Kishi lists several continuing applications, those available to applicant at this writing all seem to be based upon the use of microwave or magnetic flux to heat ceramic or metallic balls 29, and to completely dry the raw sewage to a sterile ash for ease of disposal. Kishi describes a portable toilet. He claims a raw sewage drying apparatus comprising a casing, a rotating drive shaft unit having a plurality of blades for stirring the raw sewage, and bodies or ball elements capable of being heated by directing electromagnetic waves toward the casing. The ball elements are made from a radio frequency energy adsorbing material and transfer enough heat to the surrounding sewage to dry and pulverize to a powdery ash for vacuum collection in a dust collector. In applicant's invention the need for ball elements are unnecessary. The radio frequency energy heats the waste directly, because of the high dielectric absorption of the water contained within the waste. Applicant's rotating partition walls simply move accumulated waste in sectors under the radio frequency energy window for exposure to intense radio frequency energy.
The objectives of applicant are to directly heat the pathogens in the manure and to prepare a material to serve as a base for a fertilizer.
Simon (U.S. Pat. No. 3,997,388) claims a method and apparatus to dry manure with microwave radiation at the preferred frequency of 2450 Maz in combination with ultrasonic energy to accelerate evaporation and discourage matter from adhering to the surfaces.
Applicant relies upon slick vertical, polymer surfaces and wiping action to discourage adhesion of semi-liquid wastes. The ultrasonic energy introduced by Simon is unnecessary in the applicant's invention.